JOEY KENNEDY: Former U.S. Rep. Glen Browder has grim outlook for America

If Alabama hadn't voted silly in 1996, it would have elected former U.S. Rep. Glen Browder to the U.S. Senate. Instead, Browder was beaten by Roger Bedford in the Democratic primary and, ultimately, we got Republican Jeff Sessions as our senator.

Hard to say Alabama -- or the nation -- is better for it.

What Congress needs are a lot more Browders and a lot fewer Sessionses. That doesn't mean more Democrats or fewer Republicans. America needs people who understand how government is supposed to function and who aren't afraid to compromise to make our nation work. We need people, like Browder, a former longtime political science professor at Jacksonville State University, who care more for their nation than they do for their political party.

What we have now is absolute government dysfunction, and it may destroy American democracy.

Now, nearly a decade later, Browder says it looks like "it still holds true, but we're just 10 years further along."

Think about it, if you can stand it. Our nation is so far in debt, nobody knows how we'll get out. Partisan politics makes getting anything done impossible. When one party is willing to destroy the nation's economy to hurt the president from the other party, you know we've spiraled down.

"We can't fix things by focusing simply on politics," Browder says. "We have to have a national dialogue about how the world has changed since we started this great experiment in democracy. We haven't had that kind of debate since we started this country. The closest we came to it was the 1860s (the Civil War).

"This is probably the most challenging time since then."

That national dialogue should be led by President Barack Obama, Browder says, but he doubts in the political climate of Washington, such a dialogue could take place. And that's dangerous, Browder says.

"The problem is, and history has shown, democracy has within itself the capability of self-destruction," he says. "People say that politicians are out of touch. One of the biggest problems is they are too much in touch.

"Used to, these people would go into back rooms and cut deals and make decisions based on what they thought best for America, without worrying too much about what people said," Browder continues. "Today, we're so wired, politicians don't have as much room to make tough decisions."

Browder isn't giving up on American democracy, but he says "I don't know whether there's a way out (of these problems) without some catastrophic event.

"At critical junctures in our nation's history, we have taken the right turn," he says. "Not every time, and quite often after trying the wrong turn and it not working. But we seem eventually to take the right turn."

As far as the future of the country, Browder admits to not being very confident.

It may be difficult to change that because of the influence of money in the system. When he was in Congress, Browder was a reformer who fought for campaign finance reform, without success.

"I think our elections have become atrocious," Browder says. "Elections are bought and sold. Rather than propose rational alternatives to the American people, you demonize the other side. The parties want control, and the best way they can get control, if they can win the ideas debate, they win the money debate. It's awfully hard for the government to function under those circumstances."

Yeah, that's pretty depressing. Browder says unless dramatic changes occur, the America we know now won't exist by 2050 -- less than 40 years from now.

"The bad news is that we've got some really serious problems ahead of us," Browder says. Then, chuckling a bit, he adds: "The good news is you and I won't be around to see them."

Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is an editorial writer, blogger and editor of the Sunday Viewpoints section for The News. E-mail: jkennedy@bhamnews.com